Israel is bitching to the world that the UN Goldstone Gaza report should be dismissed, ignored, scrubbed from history.
And yet cracks are starting to appear, writes Gideon Levy in Haaretz:
Israel should thank Judge Richard Goldstone and his commission’s important report. After subjecting him to useless, automatic mudslinging, Israel suddenly realized that it should finally investigate the events of Operation Cast Lead. Why? What happened? The ground has started to tremble under the feet of a number of Israeli statesmen and officers.
That, it turns out, is the only way to teach us a lesson. Goldstone held up a mirror to us; we tried to smash it, as is our wont, but this time, as opposed to earlier reports, smashing it did not work. Suddenly it was reported (and denied) that Defense Minister Ehud Barak has asked former Supreme Court president Aharon Barak to head an investigative committee, suddenly the head of Military Intelligence is calling for the adoption of the “ethics code” composed by Prof. Asa Kasher, and suddenly Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called an urgent meeting to discuss establishing an investigative committee.
What happened? Again, it turns out, everything is personal. It is also too little, too late: An “investigative committee” is not enough, nor is the ethics code written by Kasher, who told Maariv a few days ago that the Gazan doctor Ezzeldeen Abu al-Aish was responsible for the deaths of his daughters. And yet it’s good the ground has started to quake under our feet.
…
Is the world hard on Israel? Perhaps. But Israel also enjoys endless preferential treatment. The world acts differently toward us, turns a blind eye to Dimona and is silent about the occupation, and now it no longer wants to keep silent about Gaza. Why? Because this time we went too far. That is not only the world’s right, it is its duty.
Goldstone began the work, Israel should continue it. In the end, the image that looks out from Goldstone’s mirror is our image, not his.
It’s a point picked up by the wonderful Israeli-based blogger The Magnes Zionist:
I, for one, am grateful that Israel is sticking close to the script. Israel is a systematic violator of human rights, but unlike many other systematic violators, it is intensely sensitive to its international reputation. That is why the Boycott, Sanctions, and Divestment campaign is so attractive. There is no other violator of human rights in the world that is more sensitive to world public opinion (and governmental opinion) than Israel.
And Judge Goldstone will not be silenced. I have now heard him speak several times. Listen to him speaking with Christiane Amanpour here. He is an eloquent and persuasive spokesman against Israel’s war crimes, and against the world’s double standard of only punishing weak countries with no powerful friends, for human rights violations.
this is a very silly piece. the report is a laughing stock. the mistakes, kafkaesque logic, systematic assumption of israel guilt and palestinian innocence, make it an embarrassment to any who’s read it (have you?). just look at what he said to Christiane Amanpour yesterday when she asked if he thought Hamas would investigate:
Well Hamas has courts open. There are courts in Gaza. People are convicted. Some people are, regrettably in my view, are sentenced to be executed. But if Hamas hasn’t got the sufficient resources, hasn’t got sufficient lawyers and judges, which I doubt, I’ve no doubt that the international community will fill any gap that there may be in such an absence of resources.
this is a bad joke, if Hamas found anyone guilty of anything, it would be not attacking Israeli civilians. the man lives in a “even-handed” universe where he has not a clue to the vicious culture of hate and genocidal religious zealotry that moves groups like Hamas and Hizbullah.
and the rest of the interview which the Magnes Zionist so admired is a joke in the same vein. Goldstone assures us (apparently without knowing anything) that Americans surely don’t target civilians but Israelis do, when the Israelis have a 2:1 record of militant to civilian rate in their targeted killings and the US a rate of between 1:10 (on good days) and more often 1:50.
if Goldstone represents “moderate Zionism” then the political scale can’t even contain the “moderate” Palestinians, whose most self-critical and progressive members are dead and anyone alive (like Abbas) is, by such a scale, far far right. there’s not a shred of the kind of self-criticism that goldstone, you, or your admired commenters like Levy and Magnes engage in among the Palestinians.
Here’s an example of the Hamas judicial system which Goldstone is confident can either carry out the necessary “review” or will happily accept help from him and his friends. note the reason for summary execution.
The Hamas court system in action as decribed by the NYT:
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/12/30/world/middleeast/30mideast.html?_r=1
On Monday, Dr. Ashour was not the only official in charge. Armed Hamas militants in civilian clothes roamed the halls. Asked their function, they said it was to provide security. But there was internal bloodletting under way.
In the fourth-floor orthopedic section, a woman in her late 20s asked a militant to let her see Saleh Hajoj, her 32-year-old husband. She was turned away and left the hospital. Fifteen minutes later, Mr. Hajoj was carried out by young men pretending to transfer him to another ward. As he lay on the stretcher, he was shot in the left side of the head.
Mr. Hajoj, like five others killed at the hospital this way in 24 hours, was accused of collaboration with Israel. He had been in the central prison awaiting trial by Hamas judges; when Israel destroyed the prison on Sunday he and the others were transferred to the hospital. But their trials were short-circuited.
they target their own civilians. why shdn’t they target israelis.